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SUSTAINABILITY | Read Our Commitment
Businesses and industry have been set the mammoth task of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and there are hundreds of research projects investigating how to take CO2 out of the atmosphere and store it somewhere (usually underground!).
Governments across the world are recognising that they are not going to reach the goal by reducing emissions alone and large corporate are realising that they are going to get taxed on CO2 and the only realistic way forward for them is to offset their CO2.
What the government and business does is out of our hands, but as gardeners there are small steps that we can take NOW which will make a big difference in the long run.
Planting trees (afforestation) is the most common off-set mechanism and it is not without issues, but it is happening and there are more “Gold Standard” track and trace methods in place to ensure it is fit for purpose. However, we are seeking to plant ‘a billion small immature trees’ to lock up carbon, but annually we cut down 15 billion mature trees! It’s an interesting trade-off between sustainability and emergency climate change action. Reference.
As many biochar and soil scientists have noted, soil is one of the biggest carbon sinks. Our agricultural soils have become depleted in carbon. If we can get the carbon back into soil, this would make a huge difference. There are many projects looking at regenerative agriculture to increase soil carbon. The main issue is not whether they will work (it is largely proven they do), it is how long they will take and the total tonnes of carbon they will sequester each year.
The climate crisis needs a fast solution and, soil needs a fast way to increase carbon that is safe, sustainable and beneficial to plant health and crop yield. This is where biochar comes in
Made correctly biochar is sustainable
Used correctly biochar can be cost effective
Used correctly biochar has an immediate impact on soil carbon
You as readers will be aware: biochar increases plant health and growth. Biochar ticks all the above boxes.
At a gardening level – every Kg of biochar added to your garden soil offsets 3 Kg of CO2. It works on the basis that there are 30million gardeners – if each adds a small amount it becomes significant.
At a UK governmental level – it is both viable and possible to offset 1.6 M t CO2e per year using UK made biochar using waste wood. (That is about 8% of the total annual UK offset target).
At SoilFixer we have and remain adamant that biochar, made from wood, works better than other types of biochar (read this blog for why). All users can be confident that our biochar is made to the European Biochar Certification and hence only uses wood from FSC certified forestry using a pyrolysis kiln that recovers heat. Even using the "best of the best", we are still left with a dilemma: in a climate emergency, is it right to fell any tree to make charcoal and biochar? The alternative is to use genuine “end of life” wood to make biochar. This is challenging. Most “waste” wood is taken to green waste and wood waste collection depots – it immediately enters the world of “controlled waste products” which rightly have stringent controls on disposal and re-use. We have been working with the Environment Agency on using this “waste” wood to make biochar. We have also been working on a vastly scaled-up process to make it cost effective. We are almost there. If there are any interested parties who want to investigate investing to help create the new system, email tony.callaghan@soilfixer.co.uk
